Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai II – 07

While it didn’t happen exactly how I expected it to, this has to be one of the best episodes of Kami Nomi to date. With the whole formula of a capture being thrown upside down, things felt strong from start to finish. As Keima himself recognized, the amount of flags he missed was staggering. While I’m no dating sim player, even I was able to tell that Chihiro was sending some obvious messages. Not only did she try talking to him about whatever she could think of, she even brought him some food! Even though her delivery might have been a bit too sarcastic, we all know that she went back into that convenience store to grab Keima’s share. When a girl is going out of her way to bring food to you, it should be a clear indication that something’s up.

Throughout the episode there was a liberal use of silent scenes this week. By silent scenes, I’m talking about those scenes with no voices other then grunts that were filled with that classy piano backtrack that really helped set the mood. Something about watching Chihiro’s battle with herself trying to figure out who her heart really had fallen for, was captivating to say the least. And by the time she had finally gotten the courage to admit that she didn’t want to confess to Yuta, it stung a bit to watch her get shot down. Since Keima doesn’t have the luxury of knowing everything that we do, I would normally cut him some slack. But like I said earlier, what kind of God of Conquest would miss signs that a normal person (me) could notice?

In a slightly forced but still spectacular finish, Keima regains his composure and continues to keep his 100% capture rate. I say slightly forced since most guys don’t get the opportunity to recover after such a serious argument, but I guess I can give it up to our God of Conquest’s charm. When push comes to shove it’s a relief to know that Keima can openly express his feelings and bring out the best in people. As Chihiro and every single other capture has shown, they all end up with their lives a little bit brighter and a little bit better than before.

As I’ve questioned in the past, it looks like Keima is finally beginning to question the effects of his actions on his current reality. A reality where the girls whom he opens his heart up to disappear just when their affection reaches the point where they can be “comfortable” with each other. Having a relationship end is probably one of the worst feelings in the world, but as I think about multiplying that feeling by at least six times, I commend Keima for somehow ignoring this basic feeling of his. It shows that while he may have his super otaku moments, be insanely rude to Elsie, and have a general disregard about things going on around him, he’s still a real person with emotions.

they managed to make this one quite good with the drama. much better than what they did to haqua’s. I agree that the drama was played quite well in this ep and might be one of the best ep that kami nomi has done recently.

I had a bit of a chuckle when chihiro started comparing herself to ayumi and kanon. if she just added shiori, she would’ve said all the girls that I like.

ps. im surprised that you didnt put the pic of keima eating that siopao(I think?).

I almost don’t wanna see Keima lose to his own emotions. The end of a relationship before it even started is pretty hard to get over- especially when you know the feeling is mutual. I wonder if Elsie will step in at that point. She’s got a good [emotional] grip on Keima I think (mostly because of all the stuff they’ve been through).

Keima’s godlikeposes are so manly. And he looked simply fab in that black collared shirt. <3

At the very end of this episode I got a better understanding of the same part that happened in the manga. I didn’t quite understand that he was beginning to ponder if he was struggling reality too.

I’d also like to say that God Only Knows does something that I’m really appreciating, which is letting us into Kami’s head a bit more. It fleshes him out more than what the manga does, and I like that.

While we could head into the next arc, I don’t think we will though. The person for that next arc wasn’t shown on the opening, so I think we’ll probably move to the third person in the opening, swing in another girl, and have a fun episode with Elsie and Haqua.

After that we’ll probably go into the next arc. Which will be all sorts of fun.

Hmm, I found that little insert of South Park odd as well. Usually I don’t catch many of the post 2003 or 2004ish anime references because I usually don’t watch much contemporary ‘mainstream’ anime. I just don’t like many of them. But, when I finally saw a reference I understood, it was freaking South Park!

South Park is FULL of cultural references. I would imagine it would be as hard to “get” for someone in Japan as a lot of comedy anime with cultural and language references is hard for me to “get”. But, there is probably enough generic situational stuff to make it enjoyable.

A dub eh? I always wondered what dubs in Japanese would be like. Most anime mouth movements are simply opening and closing of the lips, like a fish, so dubbing isn’t extremely difficult. American animations, South Park included, tend to put much more emphasis on the actual mouth moments for specific sounds, drawing them accordingly. It would be interesting to see one with this in mind.

I also wonder if they are like us, and prefer subtitles instead. Dubs make me a sad panda.

It’s good to see the Japanese can take a joke about themselves. Whale Whores was indeed a hilarious episode. Though, I think it made much more fun of the Sea Shepherd than anything else.

Hmm. Well, I once marathoned a bunch of Disney movies dubbed in Japanese, and I don’t remember the lip flaps being too distracting. Sure, they very often didn’t match up, but the Japanese actors’ performances were phenomenal enough to distract the viewer from that. ;)

As for the Chinpokomon episode, a quick glance at its Japanese Wikipedia entry tells me that it indeed didn’t air on Japanese television, nor was it included on DVD. Looks like the fansub of the episode is one of the most popular South Park episodes on SayMove! though.

I dont know about the reality of his conquests haunting him but i think he may have actually liked chihiro even before the whole conquest thing, i think maybe thats one of the reasons he got so hurt about being called a cockroach and stuff

It’s pretty surprising the depth they put into this arc, but it’s done really well. It’s a shame this season’s only running for one cour, though. What’s with anime these days and only running for one cour :/

In the manga you can find many notes regarding the anime production from the mangaka’s viewpoint. They are really interesting.

One of them is about how he had 2 options for the airing: long running anime (Naruto/Bleach/etc. style) or high quality 12 episode seasons. Personally, I am very pleased with the final decision and it’s results.

Marathoned this show from episode 2 of the first season after I gave it a try again, and after that unexpectedly brilliant showing, I find myself rather hooked.
This episode was great. Chihiro is actually the girl I found myself most vested in, partially because of how opposed Keima was to “conquering” her in the beginning and their past history. What really surprised my about this episode though was the fact that he had to kiss her, while I had expected the opposite.
It seems the kisser alternates per girl.

Chihiro actually started to fall in love with Keima. Not Keima pretending to be someone else and spouting out lines he knows will get him flags with a girl. She fell for the actual honest to god video game dweeb, and now she’s forgotten all about it.

I agree that this is one of the best episodes kami. I really enjoy the character development in this episode. It shows more character to Keima than just otaku; it’s cute whenever he actually shows care to other people. Although I do think that the capturing is not very convincing for me, it is a little forced…

I have to say so far this season I’m missing the light show with the soul capture. Elsie just flies up and then comes own…I find that a bit anti-climatic. I know it’s not super robots but I like that feature especially on a multi-episode quest. At least they gave us one proper one with Haqua’s demon.

1 – dormant, girl looks like she normally does.
2 – girls develop strange abilities(like kanon’s invisibility,hinoki’s spli personality)
3 – hard to tell the diff but I guess its strong enough to escape a capture and possess a fellow demon who has a hole in their heart(or maybe thats just for that soul)
4 – impossible to capture with a normal glass/jar
5 – reincarnated, develops its own body back.

The existential crisis that has been brought up recently makes many of us wonder what really goes on within. I know Keima tries to be as objective in his conquests, but seeing him reminisce makes you realize it’s not all fun and games for him.

I’m sure there’s a couple of us who know the feeling, though to a different extent. Now this makes me wonder what next week will bring.

Also, I had a good chuckle at all the facial expressions this episode. Keima biting into his offering was just classic.

I absolutely loved the music in this episode, especially when Chihiro was strolling everywhere. Also besides all the scenes with Chihiro, my favorite part was when Elsie had that ridiculous moustache on, it was somehow hilarious and extremely adorable at the same time, with her saying “Kami-nii-sama!” and the moustache vibrating up and down XD.

You make it sound as if he’s interested in striking up relationships with them, in the manga the latest chapters only reinforce that he’s only doing this because he has to. I doubt his interest in women extends beyond Yu-kyun, which will probably shown at the end of the season. xD

really though, yohkyun was usually used to assert in the early months that keima only loves 2D girls. its pretty much confirmed even by searching his mind. its also usually to troll trick both the new and old fans.

This arc turned Kami Nomi in my favourite series this season. I like how they put more emphasis on drama instead on the comedy. Now it has turned from a mediocre comedy into a good drama. Seeing hoe Keima rethinks about his life and shows some emotion are maybe the best part of this show.
He lives a live noone could live, because he actuallly does care about the world. But everytime when there’s a little light at the end of the tunnel it gets taken away from him again. I hope he finally gets what he wants next arc.

So ends another arc, overall it wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be. I’m not a Chihiro hater, i just didn’t find the character that interesting compared to the others thus far. Maybe it was the fact that she the most ‘normal’ of the bunch, i dunno.

Though it looks like there is gonna be another gap between this arch and the next ‘conquest’ one. So what it will be exactly, we’ll have to wait and see.